Warhammer 40,000/6th Edition Tactics/Dark Angels

This is the 6th Edition's tactics. The previous Edition's tactics are here. 7th editon tactics are here

Why Play Dark Angels?

Because you want to field an entire army of Terminators without being teased about being a powergamer or a furry (Or you want scoring units), or entire army of Bikers. The 6th Edition update boosted both Ravenwing and Deathwing builds (bracketed Toughness values are now actual and Power Swords are AP3), meaning that your Ravenwing Bikers are no longer vulnerable to Krak Missile Instant Death and your Deathwing Terminators are now even scarier to that squad of Howling Banshees. Oh, and you have the "last" Jetbike in the Imperium. Did we mention it comes with a Plasma Cannon? Bitches love Plasma Cannons.

In a nutshell:

• You're a Terminator lover
• You like the idea of wearing robes over your power armor
• You wish to laugh at morale checks.
• Speed is your need, and Dark Angels are the best marine army for players who wants to use bikes in support of your army.
  • Don't give in to internet hype, you aren't inferior to White Scars, just different 1) Ravenwing can still outflank without the need to add a special character, 2) You can add Darkshrouds to improve jink/cover saves instead of Skilled Rider (which help the rest of the army too, not just the bikers), 3) You can get a land speeder in your bike squadrons, 4) Ravenwing work better with others by having Teleport Homers and access to Dark Angels standards 5) Black Knights are still the best (if most expensive) bikers in the game 6) Sammael beats Khan
• Codex Marines now cost (more or less) the exact same points as Dark Angels do. So you have to decide if you want to have better flyers and a bigger choice of combinations for your army or a bunch of terminators, fancy bikes, and bonuses against Chaos Marines. Or you could ally them and take them together.
• Newfags: Just picked up Dark Vengeance? Welcome to the next step in GW's long-term upsell scheme.
• You are to codex chaos space marine as Grey Knights are to Daemons, with Preferred Enemy Chaos conferred onto each of your inner circle units and some vehicles. Heldrake spam? You don't need to care since you can take terminators as troops and can have blanket invulnerable saves. Some of your weapons even have special bonuses against the fallen TRAITOR MARINES
• With the new ally system introduced, DA would make a nice ally army to anyone that needs a mediocre beatstick to defend themselves from CQC, or to help drive around the board/camping behind cover by sending mediocre a lot of dakka to make a tough shooty army. (See: Tau)
• A single FAQ (see Power Field Generator) can strike in a few seconds most useful strategies. Don't you feel frustrated but determinated to find solutions when you don't know how your army will change with the next faq? So feel the Dark Angels about their fallen brothers.
  • New FAQ for 7th Edition has brought back the Power Field Generator/Land Raider combo! OOOOOR NOT>Games workshop has kept all of the previous changes to the codex in the digital version.

Also, don't forget about the FAQ/Erreta that GW released for the Dark Angels after a few days being on shelf.

Armory of The Lion

Let's face it, the heretics have a nice layout on their tactica; no reason we can't use it and say they got it from us. Other than the fact that they don't exist. So we came up with this layout. With no inspiration from anywhere else.

Ranged Weapons

Actually a valid choice. Your characters do not want to be in close combat, as most duelist HQ's in the game would kill them in challenges, so let's buy some moar dakka. Keep in mind that while your champions aren't going to down other HQs in melee they're easily good enough to bully regular troops that underestimate them... for which you don't really need dedicated melee weapons. Due to weird wording you can take two ranged weapons if you want, which you really shouldn't, unless it's two combi-weapons for a non-veteran dakkasarge.

• Bolter - Wait, do not skip! This is a good and solid choice if you do plan to abuse Standard of Devastation

• Stormbolter - It's only 5-pts, so why not?

• Combi-weapon - Tried and true. One-shot melta, plasma or flamer is always handy, if you use them wisely.

• Plasma pistol - The most expensive and the least popular choice. The main reason why is pistol range, which make it useful only to lay some dakka before charge - and on terminator-armored model Combi-plasma do this job better for less points.

Melee Weapons

Unlike some people who obviously do not exist, your guys can get only one special melee weapon, so no claw/fist combo for you. Also note the lack of Storm Shield - this is why expensive and goofy Displacer Fields are your special wargear. Remember that your named HQs can't take these, and usually have some sort of special melee weapon anyway.

• Power Weapon - Unlike other armies, a power weapon is actually a valid choice - not because its better, but because Dark Angels themselves are worse in assault. With fewer base attacks, the extra swing from a pistol/power sword often overcomes the other options in this category (would you rather have one AP3/shred attack, or two power sword swings?).

• Lightning Claws - Not so useful on sergeants due to only one attack base, and not useful on HQ units, because they need something to pierce through 2+ armor to have a chance of winning in challenge. Carefully consider power swords instead, or an axe if you're expecting Terminator Equivalents.

• Power Fist - Not as much of a must have as they were in 5th ed, and not recommended on non-veteran sergeants. Otherwise either this or power axe are obligatory choices for your warlord, as long as you face marines or orks. They continue to make great surprises for overconfident vehicle commanders...

• Thunder Hammer - You're paying extra 5 points for a stylish power fist. Yes, it has concussive, but with an almighty S8 AP2 hit few things can survive to suffer from concussion. May be good against monstrous creatures, though, but again concussion only starts to kick after the first blow exchange. Most of the time, you'll see these on the special units that have something else going for them (like terminators with storm shields) or not at all.

Special Rules

• Deathwing Assault - Any squads with this rule, deep strike on either turn one or turn two. You decide. There are two details people often miss about these bone-white marauders. Firstly, you CAN split units up. Not all Deathwing have to attempt a Deathwing Assault, you just have to notify your opponent which ones. This allows you to drop Belial and his homies (and homing beacon) turn one, then roll as normal to bring on your cyclone-missile terminators in turn two for a scatter-free strike. However you MUST write down the arrival turn somewhere before the game begins. Sounds like minutia, but it works in your favor as you don't need to tell the opponent which turn it is. Heavy-weapon armies will likely have to spend the first turn sticking close to their guns instead of pulling into better positions for fear of a terminator assault.

• Fortress of Shields - If a model with this special rule is in base contact with at least 2 other models with this special rule it gets toughness 5. This does have the side effect of keeping you from spacing your terminator knights effectively, but this isn't actually as much of a problem as it might at first appear. If you expect plasma cannons, spread out like you always would: +1 toughness won't help against S7 hits. If, on the other hand, you're fighting imperial guard lasgun hordes, bunch up and watch their pathetic S3 guns fail to wound five times out of six. Unfortunately this doesn't affect your ordinary terminators. EDIT: Rules say if a model with the Inner Circle special rule is in base contact, so if you can space things well, then you have some T5 regular termies.

• You Cannot Hide - Can deal Precision Strikes, just like characters. Given to Deafwing Knights. Perfect for removing that one jerk with a power fist or for heaping pain on an independent character.

• Grim Resolve - Dark Angels' Chapter Tactics part 1. Grants Stubborn, but the unit loses the ability to choose to auto-fail a morale check.

• Inner Circle - Dark Angels' Chapter Tactics part 2. Grants Fearless and Preferred Enemy (Chaos Space Marines).

• Vengeful Strike - All ranged weapons are twin-linked on the same turn as the deep strike. This special rule is absolutely dazzling, for a shooting based army, it allows you to get into a good position and unleash some nasty dakka into a deadly close combat unit. Or it can help you gun down a dangerous looking tank in the rear armour. Coupled with. Belial you can get your now twin-linked assault cannon or cyclone missile launcher, with a horde of bolter shots, into someone's squishy armour 10 rear passage. It is also useful to ensure that you remove that one big threat with a shooty DW Assault.

• Deathwing Vehicle: A Deathwing Vehicle gets Preferred Enemy (Chaos Space Marines) and can force a re-roll on the damage table for penetrating hits. It brings in everything other peoples' 'Venerable dreadnoughts' get, but you can put this on land raiders too.

Warlord Traits

1.Rapid Manoeuvre: Warlord and his unit roll two dice for Run moves taking the highest, or can add D6 to their Turbo-boosts(or flat-out for Sammael on his Land Speeder). Sammael has this by default.

2.The Hunt: You score an extra VP for killing the enemy warlord in assault with your Warlord or his unit. Belial, Ezekial, and Asmodai have this by default.

3.Courage of the Lion:The Warlord and all friendly units within 12' roll an extra die for leadership check(excluding psykic tests) discarding the highest. One of the best traits.

4.For the Lion!:The Warlord and his unit have Furious Charge. This is what Sword of the Imperium from the vanilla codex pretends to be, what with its one use limit.

5.Brilliant Planning:You can add +1 or -1 to your reserve rolls. Very useful for bringing in your Outflanking Ravenwing bikes.

6.Hold at all costs:The warlord and his unit gain Feel No Pain when within 3' of an objective. Note that this can be ANY unit he joins, even ones that cant score.

Chapter Relics

• Foe-smiter - S4 AP4 Assault 3 Master-crafted stormbolter. Basically, stolen Dorn's Arrow

• Lion's Roar - Master-crafted Combi-bolter with combi-part being assault plasma cannon. Yeah that's right,a mother-fucking mastercrafted assault 1 plasma cannon of rape.

• Mace of Redemption - One of the greatest weapons forged by the dark angels to hunt the Fallen Angels. EMPEROR'S ENEMIES WHO ARE CERTAINLY NOT FROM THIS CHAPTER. +3 STR and AP3 (AP2 against the unholy forces of chaos). It also inflicts blind and concussion. Your defense against Fallen TRAITORS THAT HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THE DARK ANGELS and other power-armored things

• Monster Slayer of Caliban - A power sword that grows stronger in the hands of a pure-hearted wielder, or randomly in game terms. Each fight sub-phase you roll a D6. On a 1 it's still just a power sword. On a 2-4 it adds 1 to the wielder's strength. On a 5-6 it adds 2 to the wielder's strength and causes instant death. Good for making Tyranid players cry.(aka overpriced garbage) The weapon's biggest weakness is that none of its random rolls will let it overcome anything it couldn't already deal with (like terminator armor). The extra point or two of strength simply isn't good enough most of the time, especially in an army whose commanders tend to abhor melee.

• Shroud of Heroes - Gives the wearer FnP and, if they're not in a squad, Shrouded... Yes, you read that right. 50 points for FnP on one guy. What the fuck. It's not even very helpful until you pull into a challenge, which you don't want to do.
  • That Shrouded bonus might be good if you have, say, a biker Librarian/Chaplain not attached to a squad for some ungodly/unlucky reason. Still, way too overpriced for something that actively discourages helping your squad.

• Perfidious Relic of the Unforgiven - Only Company Masters & Deathwing Knights can take this, but it's a pretty cheap upgrade that gives you Fear (which isn't that great, really) AND Adamantium Will. If you play people who go psyker-heavy *cough Thousand Sons cough* you get an extra +1 to your deny the witch rolls. It's a bit case-by-case though.

Banners and Standards

• Company Standard - Friendly Dark Angels within 12" of the bearer can re-roll failed morale checks and pinning tests AND all Dark Angels in close combat with a friendly banner get +1 to combat resolution. (Important to note since Codex Space Marines don't get this with theirs)

• Dark Angels Chapter Banner - As Company Standard, but also grants +1A to bearer's unit.

• Revered Standard - As Company Standard, but also gives friendly Dark Angels within 6" the Crusader special rule.

• Ravenwing Company Banner - Friendly Ravenwing within 12" of this banner automatically pass their Hit & Run checks and can move an extra D6 with Hit & Run.

• Deathwing Company Banner - Friendly models with the Inner Circle special rule within 6" gain +1A

• Sacred Standard of Retribution - As Company Standard, but also gives these units Counter-attack. Not really worth it, Space Wolves do it better.

• Sacred Standard of Fortitude - As Company Standard, but also gives these units Feel No Pain. Great for boosting your gunline survivability.

• Sacred Standard of Devastation - Generally known as the 'Dakka Banner','Dakka Pole' or the 'Bolter Banner'. It's treated as Company Standard, but also allows friendly Dark Angels within 6" to treat their boltguns (this includes hurricane bolters, and twin linked boltguns on bikes BIKES! ) as salvo 2/4 instead of rapid fire. Some people consider it broken, you have been warned. One of the two reasons why DA doesn't have sternguards (the other being 'cause the Deathwing is 100% termies).

Special Issue Wargear

• Auspex: It's a scanner array thingamahjig that allows the user to lower one enemy unit's cover save by one (also, it can be a different enemy unit than that rest of the unit shoots at). For 5 points, this sounds nice, but there's a couple problems. First off, it doesn't stack, so it's usually not a huge benefit. Secondly, it only has a 12" range. Finally (and most problematically), it's largely only available to HQ units, which usually have better things to be doing. If it could be taken by Sergeants, it would be amazing; as it is, it's only useful if you need to take something out and you're willing to devote large amounts of firepower to do it, to make the most of the cover save reduction.

• Combat Shield - As of this edition and last, 6+ invuln.

• Infravisor: Five points for Night Vision on the equipped model. Problem is, the whole unit counts as Initiative 1 for the purposes of Blind tests. It's only really useful when you know you'll have Night Fighting, but not incredibly useful otherwise. Don't combine with the Conversion Field.

• Meltabombs: They're meltabombs. You know them, you love them. Dark Angels don't have many dedicated assault units that would benefit from taking them, so only take them if you have points to spare and think you might get close enough to an enemy vehicle.

• Digital Weapons: - As before.

• Porta-rack: Huh, thought I was playing Dark Angels, not Dark Eldar. In any case, this is (fluffwise) a portable torture kit that lets you torture tactical information out of an enemy sergeant on the spot (which is rather unnerving to watch). Upon killing a character in CC, the user gains Preferred Enemy and Fear. You also gain access to all the opponent's teleport homers and locator beacons. It's probably not that good. Killing a character is easy (what with challenges and sergeants counting as characters), but Fear is "meh" as it only consistently works with a few armies, and though Preferred Enemy is nice, your character won't exactly be slaughtering any easier, but it does confer onto any unit he joins. Also, using enemy teleport homers isn't that useful because a.) most armies don't have them and b.) by the time the Porta-rack actually activates, most of your Deep Striking units have already arrived. Still, it's only 10 points, so if you have a few extra points, it's decent, but far from a must-take.

• Conversion Field: A neat little piece of gear that gives a 4++ invulnerable save... for 15 points. Yep, the Chaos Marines should be slavering in envy. In addition to that awesomeness, whenever the bearer passes an Invulnerable save, all units within D6" (friend or foe) basically get Blind (and friendly units can reroll the Initiative test for it). This won't activate all that often (you have Power or Terminator Armour, after all), but when it will, it's a bit of a crapshoot whether you'll take the brunt or your opponent. Still, even if you get messed up... it's a 15 point 4++ Invulnerable save!

• Jump pack - As before.

• Space Marine Bike: It's a bike. It comes with a twin-linked bolter (with Relentless), an extra point of Toughness, Hit & Run, and Hammer of Wrath. Note that Company Masters can't take one, but Techmarines can. Use it to hang out with Ravenwing Command Squads or Black Knights.

• Displacer field - 3+ invuln. At the end of the phase that saves of this type were taken, the user is teleported D6", scattered.

• Power field generator - 4+ invuln. for everyone (friend or foe) within 3" of the bearer, which offers protection from good AP weaponry (like Heldrakes) which would otherwise erase your squads. A perfect reason to take more techmarines. Inside a transport it only affects the units embarked on that transport, making it essentially useless in that situation unless you crash a Storm Eagle, or a drop pod.

• • • That is no longer True as of the new Errata, you can now pretty much put your tech marine back into the landraider and it gets a 4++ with max servitors that repair it every turn if you choose so.....and or take imperial guard allies and add three tech priests to that squad and you will have a land raider that will never die.

Unit Analysis

HQ

• Azrael, Supreme Grand Master - The closest thing Dark Angels have to the traditional "guy who costs as much as a Land Raider", clocking in at 215 points. His statline is the same as the Space Marine Chapter Master, albeit with a 2+ Save and 6+FnP. His Lion's Helm gives him and the members of any squad he joins a 4+ Invulnerable Save, which is quite handy, and he also swings a master-crafted Power Sword which strikes at Strength 6. Oh, and he carries a master-crafted blinding Combi-Plasma and a Bolt Pistol. Oh, and for 6th ed, Azzy now makes BOTH Deathwing and Ravenwing squads troops, the entire army uses his leadership of 10 (not that this will affect space marines that often) and on top of that he can choose his warlord trait from the Dark Angels specific table instead of having to roll.

• Master Sammael of the Ravenwing - He lets Ravenwing Attack Squadrons become Troops choices. His statline's identical to an SM Master's, but with Toughness 5. He pilots the Imperium's last functioning Jetbike, which just so happens to be loaded with a Plasma Cannon and a Twin-Linked Stormbolter. He also carries a Bolt Pistol for that ever so helpful +1 attack. He swings an AP2 Power Sword as he rides through the battle, and has an Adamantine Mantle (Eternal Warrior in a nice flapping cape). Also has an Iron Halo. Alternatively, he can take to the field in an AV14 on the front and sides, AV10 in the rear, Land Speeder armed with a Twin-Linked Heavy Bolter and a Twin-Linked Assault Cannon. With that Halo still working, meaning the speeder gets 4++. He also has Scouts, Skilled Rider, and Hit and Run like the rest of his company. A good, solid choice. How he rolls is up to your playstyle. Also, his jetbike model is one of the sexiest motherfucking models that GW has ever made.

• Master Belial of the Deathwing - At first Belial looks like a Company Master in Terminator Armour with the option for either his sword of silence, a fleshbane power sword, pair of Lightning Claws, or a Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield, but then you see that he gives you Deathwing Terminators as a Troops choice. Also any inner circle unit he joins does not scatter when deep striking. In large games he's going to die like a bitch because there is absolutely nothing else spectacular about him whatsoever, but in smaller games he's a reasonably-priced HQ choice who can help your Termies stomp a vital target. I recommend you take the Thunder Hammer/Storm Shield loadout if you're gonna face a lot of AP2 weaponry and his iron halo won't hold out. Otherwise, his sword of silence is pretty nasty against most things and if you're taking him, take a DW command squad to keep his ass alive. He can also shoot bitches out of squads with a 5+ Precision shot. So the SB on him can do that little bit more to ruin your opponent's shit.

• Ezekiel, Grand Master of Librarians - He comes with the same statline of the Librarians of old, with stats comparable to a Company Master -1WS, and is now a mastery level 3 psyker who can roll from Divination, Pyromancy, Telepathy, or Telekinesis in any combination. This would be amazing if you could replace his stupid Mind Worm power with a third roll on the chart (for those wondering, Mind Worm is 12 inch range Assault D3 with S4 AP2 Ignores Cover and saps WS, BS, Ld and I from whichever model it wounds; objectively decent but comparatively terrible for the same reasons as Smite). Though Sap Will really hurts character or monstrous creature focused armies as the stat reduction is for the rest of the game and each wound caused reduces those stats by 3. So 2 or 3 hits essentially turns multi-wounds models into expensive paperweights maybe with a special rule or two.
  • Gear: Ezekiel makes use of a two-handed master-crafted Force Sword (how useful), a master-crafted Bolt Pistol (why bother? His sword is two-handed), Artificer Armour (2+ armour save), and he carries the Book of Salvation, which gives all friendly units within 6" of him +1WS. He also comes equipped with a Psychic Hood, so all units within 6" of Ezekiel can use the him for Deny the Witch rolls. Since Ezekiel is Mastery Level 3, this helps quite a bit. Park him next to some Deathwing Knights and enjoy 3+ Witch Denial against everyone not named Eldrad or Ahriman.

• Asmodai, Interrogator Chaplain - GUESS WHO'S BACK, MOTHERFUCKERS! Asmodai makes a welcome return in 6th, sporting a brand new model. In game terms, he comes loaded with all the goodies that make Chaplains Chaplains, plus his trademark Blades of Reason. You may scoff at their lack of an AP or strength bonus, but they cause Instant Death. And if that's not your thing he still has his Crozus Arcanum.
  • Now that the high of having this guy back has worn off, I really don't see any reason to actually take him. A regular Interrogator Chaplain with the Mace of Redemption has the same statline, basic wargear, and price, but puts out more damage more reliably. An Epistolary Librarian with a Conversion Field, Prescience, and a Force Sword can do roughly the same job as Asmodai while having AP3 to boot, all for 15 points less.

• Interrogator-Chaplain Seraphicus - According the the new FAQ, the limited edition Dark Vengeance Chaplain is actually a special character. Instead of re-rolls to hit on the charge, he lets his unit re-roll ones to hit and wound for both shooting and melee. The problem? It only works against Chaos Space Marines. For 125 points, he's the same cost as a regular Interrogator-Chaplain with a plasma pistol (he has one), but you have no reason to waste your points on this guy unless you know for sure that you will be facing CSM.
  • Other Notes: Standard Interrogator-Chaplains already get this (Inner Circle gives them Preferred Enemy: Chaos Space Marines which does the exact same thing as Serpahicus's special rule) as well as Zealot. Chalk this up to a rushed FAQ that came out less than a week after the Codex hit the shelves and just take him as a standard Interrogator Chaplain with a plasma pistol.

• Interrogator-Chaplain - Same as the regular Chaplain, but with +1 Wound,+1 BS, +1 Initiative, +1 attack, the ability to wear Terminator armour and so very much more. The Interrogator Chaplain is advised.

• Company Master - Clocking in at 90pts base, a cheap if underwhelming option, great for low point games. Generally overshadowed by the named Company Masters and the bonuses they give. If you're thinking of shelling out the points for Artificer Armour or Terminator Armour, you might as well pay the extra 100pts for Belial (you also get Terminators as Troops with him). If you want to fly (and you like Ravenwing), go for Sammael. If you want a cheap combat HQ, however, he's your man. Sometimes worth it, but I would suggest taking one of the named characters as your main HQ in higher point games.

• Chaplain - A general purpose support HQ. Allows himself and his squad re-rolls to hit in the first round of combat, no matter what, and comes with a 4+ Invulnerable Save and a Power Maul. Can ride a Bike, or use a Jump Pack. Still costs as much as a Company Master, and the Interrogator-Chaplain does everything this guy can do, only better.

• Techmarine - Can be taken for every HQ that isn't a Command Squad or Techmarine themselves. Doesn't take up FOC, in the same way as a Command Squad. 50 points for Artificer Marine. Can be given a bike for speedy repairs.
• Librarian - The actual cheapest HQ choice, clocking in at 65pts base. The points-strapped player's Ezekiel. Can use the same disciplines as Ezekiel, but with -1 Wound, -1 BS, -1I, -1A and a 3+ Save. Can wear Terminator armour, but his Force Weapon isn't master-crafted. If you want to take a Librarian, spring for Ezekiel. You also can take a Bike, power field generator and an Auspex for him and ride somewhere behind vehicles, giving 4++ where it's most nessesary and reducing enemies cover save.
  • Notes: Comes equipped with a Psychic Hood. All units within 6" of the psyker can use the psyker for Deny the Witch rolls. Usually improves the result by 1, by 2 if your psyker is level 2 and the opponent's psyker is level 1. If he's inside a transport, he can only attempt to Deny the Witch for the Transport.

• Company Command Squad - Let's say that for some reason you didn't take an HQ choice in terminator or on a bike. For your peculiar efforts they are the most usable for Standard of Devastation,with the ability to take boltguns, you can get these dudes to tag along with your HQ. Honestly, these guys aren't that bad if you load them up right. Think of them as Loyalist Chosen and you're not far off, armed to the teeth with a slew of special weapons. Be sure to take a banner and an apothecary but resist the urge to take a company champion unless you really need someone to take challenges.

• Deathwing Command Squad (New Unit) - Fairly pricey new unit that can do all the things a Deathwing squad can, wherein one guy can be made an apothecary, another dude can hold the flag and last but not least, one dude can be made the company champion, who gets +1WS and can take the Halberd of Caliban (+2S, AP2, 2-handed). Used to be a troops choice; now it's intended as a retinue for Belial or a Termie Master. Comes with 5 powerfists over the regular termies 4 and a powersword.

• Ravenwing Command Squad (New Unit) - Another reshuffling of the FOC, they are the Ravenwing equivalent to the Deathwing Command Squad. You can load these biker boyz out with all sorts of goodies including plasma talons (18" twin-linked plasma guns THAT ARE RAPID FIRE. FUCK YA.), Corvus Hammers (+1S, AP-, Rending) and one really weird grenade launcher. Just like the squad above, you can have an apothecary, banner bearer and a company champion. Enjoy! The squad is 3 knights but you can add two more guys, however Games Workshop only sell kits of three Black Knights. Do the math GW has not done (3+2≠3+3) and take a squad of black knigts or sell one to a friend if you don't want to waste your money. Irritating! Or use the leftover sixth bike to convert a bike character, since you need one anyway to unlock this unit. As a side note, these guys are 2 points each cheaper than their non-command squad Black Knight brethren, but have identical stats and wargear. If you're taking a character on bike and you plan on taking a smallish squad of black knights, you would be better served taking them as a command squad, so you can save yourself a FA choice and a few points.

• Damocles Rhino (Forgeworld) Yes, an HQ vehicle! Now 75 pts in IA12 and no longer takes up a HQ slot, so you still have to take another character. (but most expensive in terms of real money), but is still one of your cheapest HQs. Armed with nothing but a storm bolter and a searchlight for defense, with no transport capacity, it may not seem like an obvious choice. BUT, the Damocles true power lies in it's incredible support abilities, it allows a single Orbital bombardment in the same way as a codex chapter master, lets all teleporting units within 12" arrive without scatter and allows the owning player to modify reserve rolls by plus or minus one. This can be useful following a turn one-two Deathwing punch as not all Terminators are forced to used the Deathwing Assault rule, the reserve roll modifier is also handy for flyers, drop pods, outflanking scouts / ravenwing and land speeders, of which Dark Angels will have several. The damocles usefulness does not extend much past this however, and once the reserves have arrived and its bombardment spent theres not much you can do with it, but it will always have at least done something useful by the end of the game for 75pts.

Troops

• Tactical Squad - Now one of two troops choices (unless you took Belial or Sammael or Azrael). No longer outgunned by other marine codices, but they are essentially a shooty army's shooty troops unit: 70 pts. gets you 4 dudes plus a sarge, and 140 pts. gets you the traditional 10 dudes. The dudes are now the same price as Ultramarines, but that's not a bad thing for either of us. If you take them, take a Rhino, rush an objective, camp and watch your opponent try and dig stubborn spess muhreens out of it. Can now get either a heavy or a special weapon from the beginning, and can take a flakk missile launcher. You are also able to combat squad them, which basically means that you can turn your 10 man squad into two 5 man squads before deployment.

• Scout Squad - Scouts used to be Fast Attack, then they were Elites and now they are troops like all others (sort of). Not much to say here, other than that they have the statline of a regular Scout. Long story short: you get what you pay for, and you don't pay much for these guys. If you decide to use them, I'd take them in a Sniper Scout squad with a Missile Launcher and just camp a home objective. This layout means they're a threat to pretty much everything they can see that's in range, including Monstrous Creatures. Unforgivably, they cost MORE than their codex counterparts and they don't even have Chapter Tactics / Grim Resolve, though the cost for those sniper rifles is built-in so you might as well take as many as you can. Also, the Ravenwing stole all their Teleport Homers and modded their transport Storm speeders into pimp-mobile Darkshrouds.

Elites

• Deathwing Terminator Squad - This is why you play Dark Angels. Not quite, anymore. They are still Fearless Terminators and can be taken as Troops, they can still do that Deep Strike on Turn 1 and yes, they can trade their Powerfists and Stormbolters for Thunder Hammers/Storm Shields (now at +5 pts/model; it was too good to last, anyway) and Lightning Claws (for free because, y'know, they don't grant a 3++ save) where they see fit. For 6th ed, you can now have squads of up to 10 of these guys PLUS you can now give 1 in every five termies an assault cannon, a cyclone missile launcher OR a fucking plasma cannon! They are also going to be fucking expensive now, which makes giving your tac and scout squads some room; that and there are some tournies that don't allow for special characters, and it's been FAQ that they're still an Elite choice if taken as an ally, regardless if the special character(s) makes them troops or not, so you'll have to make do with them. Either way, Deathwing termies are versatile as all fuck and will either squish shit to dust or they are going to be hard to shift from objectives if taken as troops. Also can split fire & twin linked then turn they deepstrike.
  • New Codex Note: Deathwing assault now works on turn 1 OR 2. You choose the turn before game; everyone arrives that turn without needing to roll for Reserves.
• Deathwing Knights - Deathwing Assault Termies, basically. Let's say that Deathwing Terminators just aren't cutting it for you and you want a stiffer, more intractable close combat squad. Say hello to Deathwing Knights: rockin' a WS5, powermauls that can become S10 AP2 once per game and get a +1T bonus when all their bases touch, they'll take apart anything in HtH but for 235 pts. for 4 plus a champ and 46 for each one (a bargain, if you think about it - sorta...), they fucking should! You better not roll ones on assault or Belial will hunt you down and bitch slap you. They also buff any attached IC's with Inner Circle with +1T and should you be assaulting anything from Codex CSM, the AP of their weapons improves by 1 to a maximum of AP1. They can also take Perfidious Relics to get Adamantium Will; combine with Ezekiel for some high-yield Calibanian witch denial. While Deathwing Knights are a powerful melee beat stick they are grossly overrated because they can only have that melee prowess for one turn before they turn into crap so you have to pick and choose when you use it or you will be stuck fighting marines for the rest of the game.
  • Alternate View: This AP4 S6 normal attack without smite is a very good horde stopper, loose these guys on any sort of horde esque unit with a low save and being able to attack at normal Initiative pays off well. These are particularly devastating to orks. So there is a huge boyz mob approaching? Behold as your Knights break the unit in 1 turn and turn on smite and destroy his Warboss as well as the entire unit of meganobs he's hiding in in 1 turn using instant death. They will break any infantry blob in the game, and have the You Cannot Hide special rule to pick out that commissar in that huge guard blob weighing you down. These can be an unholy unit of plague-assault-terminators with power mauls if they are used against the right foe. Anything but Space Marines or Sisters is totally screwed, but since most armies are MEQs then it should only be whipped out when facing non-marines or CSM.
  • Note: I was bored, and decided to run some numbers on this new unit. I have failed to find any REASONABLE unit of equivalent cost(I excluded things such as 465 points of Chaos Cultists) that can take survive a fight with a ten-man unit of Deathwing Knights. Ten of these guys, with Belial, was fully capable of taking down Abaddon with 10 Chaos Terminators in one turn. Ten of these guys were capable of taking down MORTARION(!) in one turn. It might have been Mathhammer, but I'm certain these guys ain't nothing to fuck with. Damn it, I thought these guys were pretty awesome too, but fighting anything other than Chaos Marines makes the maces only AP 4, which is kind of meh
  • DW Knights are Awesome: DW Knights are the best overall melee variant of DW. Why? You only get S10 ap2 once per game you say? 3 reasons: 1) immediate return on points cost, and 2) SURVIVABILITY against small arms fire. 3) You can't forget the knight master ALWAYS has S6 AP3 base of 3 attacks. In most cases termies are thrown right into the thick of a battle where they're most useful - so they won't be surviving the whole game anyway. It's a waste of points to have them sit on an objective. So..
    • 1) S10 ap2 at initiative 4 all but guarantees you'll kill that deathstar unit - Imperial Knight, Baneblade, Termies Squad etc. on Turn 2. That's an immediate return on their points cost.
    • 2) Termies generally don't go down to a few expensive power sword/fist units - they'll go down to a cadre of firewarriors, first rank fire, second rank fire lasguns, or massive boltgun fire. You are after all assaulting or teleporting into the teeth of the enemy. In this case, T5 makes a huge difference against S4 and S5 weaponry. Those boltguns are wounding on 5's (33%) instead of 4's (50%). Those lasguns are wounding on 6's (16%) instead of 5's (33%). This means the chances of getting off a 2nd assault are much higher, or if you chose to teleport next to their gunline, the chances of getting stuck-in at all are much higher.
    • 3) In that 2nd assault against a 'soft' unit - your Knight Master alone, with 4 S6 Ap3 I4 attacks on the charge guarantees you'll chew through a Power Armored Squad. If he died already, the weight of wounds from WS 5, S6 + hammer of wrath means you will always win the assault - even against 3+ armor
    • In short. The DW command squad with champion, apothecary, and a few hammers/shields is marginally better in melee - but costs a LOT more. The only reason to not take Knights is because they have no shooty weapons and are not troops.

• Company Veterans Squad - Imagine Tactical Marines with an extra attack and some individual wargear options. That's pretty much what this unit is. If you somehow forgot while reading through this page, Dark Angels are a shooting army and these guys can take combi-weapons, but don't have the benefit of Sternguard extra bullets, and can take a heavy and a special weapon at 5 guys and an extra special at ten. Your terminators and bikes should be getting into hand-to-hand, not vets, so don't get tempted by that extra base attack (Still, remember it. It might be better to exchange the extra turn of rapid fire shooting so you charge rather then be charged). Unless you are using Greenwing, in which case, ignore CC for the most part. Or you can give everyone (errata'd to everyone rather than only three) Plasma Pistols instead of Chainswords to make a Cypher Squad for close-range shooting. Or, if you're feeling really mean, take 3 combi-plasmas, take a plasma gun and then once per game, unleash a shit load of plasma fire over the enemy scum. Rather useful for taking out nid warriors, I find.

• Dreadnought - A versatile choice. Can do everything generally well. It can punch, it can dakka. Dark Angels might just be the one Space Marine army wherein the Hellfire configuration (lascannons and missile launcher) make the most sense, but the rifleman is also a good sell. If you really wanna smash things with your half-dead space marine robot, get yourself a venerable dread.
  • Venerable Dreadnought - clocking in at 125 pts. with NOTHING, which is a bargain considering it has a BS and WS of 5. Compared to other Venerables in other space marine armies, it DOES NOT have the venerable rule, but it is a Deathwing Vehicle. Although since Deathwing Vehicles allow you to make your opponent re-roll results on the damage table; it pretty much does have the old venerable rule, just called something else and with an added bonus against CSM. Venerable dreadnoughts are recommended against CSM, to whom they will do terrible things.

• Mortis Dreadnought (Forgeworld) - It's your special dreadnought (all other chapters are limited to 1 per detachment) 115pts basic with 2 Missile Launchers, which can be upgraded to two Twin-Linked Heavy Bolters, two Twin-Linked Autocannons or two Twin-Linked Lascannons. It also counts as Skyfire/Interceptor while stationary - take double autocannons, and think of it like your space marine hydra flak tank. Take 2 or Mortis Contemptor.

• Contemptor Dreadnought (Forgeworld) - Yes, you get the basic one that regular Spess Muhreens get. The Contemptor is easily Forgeworld's most popular model and it's not hard to see why: excellent armour (13/12/10), WS 5, fleet, automatic shielding and a many, many weapon options available.

• Contemptor Mortis (Forgeworld): Probably the best Contemptor variant, this guy trades in fleet heaving a melee weapon for more dakka, and the ability to gain Skyfire and Interceptor by standing still. Here's your loadout: ignore everything and take 2 Kheres pattern assault cannons and a cyclone missile launcher. There! You're done. If you find yourself not in range of the assault cannons, move forward and throw down with a couple of missiles. If you DO have something in assault cannon range, hold still and let the hate flow - your dread will loose a total of 12 S6 AP4 rending shots at 24" on a hapless unit and if you stood still, you can drop 2 more missiles on the poor fuckers. You will tear apart tanks, mow down infantry and blast aircraft out of the sky with this fucking thing. is also a victim of Forgeworld's schizophrenia, this bad boy has been moved back and forth from slot to slot, IA2:2nd moved it back to Elites and took away its BS5, presumably to balance out the sickening build recommended above, still rapes things even at BS4 though.
  • Also this is EASILY the best anti-air model you can take in Codex: Dark Angels. If you are struggling to win games against Chaos Daemon Flying Circus or Chaos Space Marine Heldrake spam, brining one of these guys is usually enough to single-handedly turn the tide against their stupid OP-as-fuck flyers and you'll only spend slightly more points going double Kheres-Pattern assault cannons/TW-LasCannons + Cyclone Launcher as you would on your own overcosted Nephilim Jetfighter.

• Prometheus (Forgeworld) - An uber crusader. Two quad heavy bolters is the same number of shots as hurricane bolters at <12", twice as many at 12-24, and can actually shoot up to 36, with the advantage of being S5. It's a HB dev squad, twin-linked. Granted, it loses the assault cannon but it fucks with cover saves and boosts reserve rolls (2+ reserves ftw!). Don't put it near enemy heavy armour, but a solid tank overall. Is it worth taking in a Dark Angels list? Depends on whether your Deathwing are troops... since you're often competing for elite FOC space. However, if your opponent is gracious, the Deathwing can take a Land Raider of ANY type as a dedicated transport, you just have to pay the points cost to make it a Venerable one.

Fast Attack

• Assault Squad: An Assault Squad is an assault unit in a shooty army. Although they are theoretically good as a cheap, fast-moving tarpit, they take up a valuable Fast Attack slot that would be much better filled with Ravenwing. If you want jump pack power, pick up Codex: Blood Angels and field them as allied Troops.
  • Alternative Opinion: DA Assault Marines are a decent unit, although they don't see much use for players that run Ravenwing/a hybrid with other Wings, or finds other units to be more useful. Generally Greenwing armies can find use for them, giving that our flyers are overpriced (They have easy access to alot of Flakk Missles anyway), and most of the other units in the FA slot is RW based. Their main use, in case you don't know, is to mop up objective campers/shooty units that are either weak, suck in melee, come in low numbers, or any combination. The major fatal blow that our Assault Marines suffer is that Allies, at least with Blood Angels, can do the same job AND be scoring units. Still, these guys aren't bad if you have plenty of scoring units and want to be fluffy with them wearing robes, in a Greenwing list of course, so these two builds is what I would recommend running them if taken:
  • 1). 10 man squad with Meltabombs: Can take on units like Kroots, Cultists, Pink Horrors, and the like, and can go after vehicles after they have done their job. I also wouldn't advise droping their Jump Packs at all, since they can't take a Razorback instead, and Rhinos just makes them worse, having to waste a turn in order to assault the said unit.
  • 2). 5 man squad with a Flamer, inside a Land Raider Redeemer: A costly build, but works well against Horde armies, at least Orks and Tyranids. Since the Redeemer is an Assault vehicle, this makes it easy for the Marines to charge in after the Flamestorm Cannon and Flamer wreck havoc on your targeted xenos scum. This can also work with a Drop Pod, just add another Flamer and give those heretics a big surprise.

• Ravenwing Attack Squadron - Your Troops choice if you picked Sammael (or Azrael). You start with 3 Bikes, with the option of buying 3 more. Unlike most other space marine bikers (except white scars) these guys all have hit & run, but they also have the scout USR meaning either extra movement at the start of the game or the ability to outflank them and ruin your opponents shit, especially if you want to deep strike deathwing close to a board edge using your teleport homers, which each guy comes with as standard. You can also buy an Attack Bike; since bracketed Toughness values are now actual, the Attack Bike can't be Instant Death'd by a Krak Sniper. Attach Meltaguns for tank hunting fun. Combine with Assault Cannon-wielding Deathwing for extra fun. Also if the unit has 6 Bikes in it, a Land Speeder as well. Unfortunately, the Land Speeder isn't scoring if the unit gets made into troops, but it does save you from spending Fast Attack slots on land speeders if you'd prefer to use other options.

• Ravenwing Black Knights - You saw those Deathwing Knights, right? These are their RW equivalent: not much different from a standard biker stat-wise (+1A, +1Ld), but these bros do each come with Corvus Hammers (+1S, rending melee weapons) + Pistols and Plasma Talons, which makes them a threat to pretty much everything. Equipping these fellas with ravenwing grenade launchers gives access to rad-shells (temporary -1T), and stasis shells (temporary -1 WS and -1 I). Have fun insta-killing carnifexes, tervigons and Gundams Riptides with S10 weaponry or wiping out marines before they strike. GL combines nastily with Deathwing Knights - Smite mode can make use of -1 T, while AP3 versus CSM combined with WS/I debuff means your DW Knights will strike before CSM, hit on 3+, wound on 2+ and won't allow armor saves. Also note that against Imperial Guard/Eldar you can -1 toughness and turn them into a delicious insta-gib meal for S 4 Bolters. (Add Standard of Devastation for 4x the lulz.)
  • Other Notes: When taking a Deathwing Army, you're more often than not better off with these guys instead. Not only do these guys say "Fuck you" to the whole "Difficult = Dangerous thing" that comes with Skilled Rider USR (actually, ignoring Dangerous Terrain altogether!) but they have an improved Jink (extra fuck you), and they're basically Ymgarl Genestealers that always have the Toughness and Strength boost, -2 Initiative, -1 Weapon Skill, moving around like an asshole, and twin plasma guns. We even have the same number of attacks as a Genestealer (on the charge, thanks to our two weapons), and rending! Even better, they also keep their Teleport homers, so you can deepstrike Terminators easily, and in stranger spots.

• Ravenwing Support Squadron - Land Speeders, NOT just like what the other chapters get, for two reasons. First, you can take up to five of these instead of everyone else who only gets three. This makes speeders a very versatile if somewhat expensive choice. Equip them with a Typhoon and a Multi-Melta in order to handle hordes and tanks. Equip them with double flamers to make nids and other weedy skirmishers cry. Equip them with assault cannons and heavy bolters so you can force multiply with Sammael when he decides to leave his jetbike at home. Squadron them up if you wish. Take 2.
  • It's the cheapest way to field Heavy Bolters en-masse. 250 points nets you 10 heavy bolters, all that are arguably more difficult to deal with than they would be mounted on mere power armor marines. 30 S5AP4 shots at 36 inches on highly mobile with BS4 for only 250 points is massively underrated
    • Except that a second Heavy Bolter is 10pts per model, increasing the cost to 300 points.

• Ravenwing Dark Talon - THIS THING TROLLS ALL OTHER ARMIES. GET IT. I DON'T CARE IF YOU'RE GOING TERMINATOR, JUST GET IT. It just wouldn't be 6th edition without flyers, and DA managed to get two. Not the best armour to be had at 11 all around, but it does pack a lot of dakka, as in double hurricane bolters and a S5 AP- heavy 1, blinding, blast rift cannon. The stasis bomb drops a can of Derp on your enemy, debuffing them for a whopping -3 to WS and I. Couple one of these with a Black knight unit for extra rage and hilarity. A Stormtalon WOULD be better, but this bad boy is meant to SUPPORT your army rather than dealing all the damage by itself.
  • With the new Vanilla Marines codex, taking Stormtalons as allies is incredibly streamlined, and you don't even need to change the color of your minis (swap out "Grim Resolve" and "Inner Circle" for a Chapter Tactic of your choice, (Astral Claws is the best fit) and point costs will be identical or near-identical). Suddenly Stormtalon all up in this bitch.
  • In addition: the Astartes Stormwing dataslate which allows you to take a formation of 2 stormtalons and a strafing storm raven without committing to a whole allies detachment.

• Nephilim Jetfighter: Largely considered one of the biggest pieces of shit in the game... which is surprising, given this Codex was written by Jeremy Vetock, not Robin Cruddace. In any case, it's not quite as bad as the Internet sometimes makes it out to be, but it is very close. The main issue is that it's 180 points for a flyer with a single twin-linked lascannon, a twin-linked heavy bolter, 6 (pointless?) Strength 6 missiles, and AV 11 on all sides. Yep, that's all you're getting, at nearly the same cost as a Heldrake. It also has something of a schizophrenic loadout. See, it has a special rule called Unrelenting Hunter, so that, when firing at enemy vehicles, you can make the enemy swap out Weapon Destroyed for Immobilized. Really good for destroying flyers, right? Well, no. You still only have a single lascannon. More importantly, it also has Strafing Run, a (rare) USR that does two things when firing at ground targets. First off, you get +1 BS, which means it'll be chewing away at BS 5. Secondly, it causes Pinning. But you only have a lascannon, right? Nope, you can switch out for an Avenger mega bolter for free. You'll get 5 S6, AP 4, Pinning shots at BS 5. Suddenly, it became a fairly decent ground attack craft... except it's still not as good as a Heldrake, and you're giving up 180 points of anti-aircraft. Fuck. One option, if you're feeling like having fun, is to get two, one with las, one with avenger mega bolter, next to a Darkshroud and buttrape all enemy flyers while enjoying a 3+ cover save.
  • alternate opinion: take this with some salt since I don't play Dark Angels, but I can see no reason WHY you can't use the Avenger bolt cannon on other flyers, no other flyer has armor higher then 12 so worst case, you can try to glance enemy flyers with weight of shots and still have the option to strafe ground targets lending it a higher degree of flexibility then the single shot weapons. I know where the previous author is coming from, but sadly you aren't a Necron Annihalation barge, you can't simply glance flyers to death with an abundance of shots. With only five shots, you will be lucky to get one glance on a flyer; stick to strafing infantry with this one.
  • Get yourself a Fire Raptor gunship from forgeworld, it does exactly the same job, but better.

• Ravenwing Darkshroud - Fuckin' A the Ravenwing got a lot of new shit! Anyway, you know how shooty armies have to scurry around finding cover so they don't get set up for an assault or blasted for being out in the open? Well, the Dark Angels Techmarines thought "why not bring our own cover?" Let's be serious for a second: it's a big landspeeder. Yes, you can deepstrike it like a landspeeder, but you're gonna miss out on providing cover for things in rhinos. Second, it has the HUEG GUTS problem, as every Blood Angels player is familiar with. Just keep this thing behind some rhinos, giving your guys shrouded ONLY GIVES STEALTHED NOW!! WAS NERFED INTO NEAR UNFAIR USEFULLNESS!-and doing mean things to whatever thought it was a good idea to charge that tac squad. Also watch Turbo-boosting Ravenwing get 3+ Jink, and Black Knights/Command Squad get 2+ due to Skilled Rider. Obviously, this thing NEEDS to be Turbo-boosted EVERY turn for 2+ Jink or it WILL die easily.

• Land Speeder Tempest Squadron (Forgeworld) - Feels like a good fluffy choice for Dark Angels armies as an alternative to Ravenwing support squad though with slightly improved front armour and the ability to shrug off crew shaken/stunned with armoured cockpits. IA2:2nd made this cooler, with the addition of twin-linked flakk missiles, a squadron of these can perform any role asked of it. Anti-Infantry & Anti-Tank using rending assault cannons and frag or krak missiles depending on your situation. Even without skyfire on the assault cannon, the amount of shots are bound to hit something in the air if you have several of them. While not true flyers, if you wanted to you can reposition on the battlefield them as if they were flyers.

• Relic Javelin Attack Speeder (Forge World) - An upgunned and uparmored Land Speeder that flies solo. AV11 means it is now invulnerable to bolter fire, but still melts under anti-tank (though jink saves help a bit). Costs less than a Tempest speeder, but it is more customisable, packs a cyclone missile launcher (for shots instead of twin-linked) OR a twin linked lascannon for tank hunting and as a nice bonus it looks absolutely fabulous. The main downside is a real money price - almost THREE TIMES MORE than regular speeder - like it's silver-plated or something. Also as a relic requires an Interrogator Chaplain if you want to take more than one.

• Caestus Assault Ram (Forge World) - Craziest vehicle in the game, designed to ram things (hence the name), and accomplishes this by having a 5+ inv. save against attacks on the front (inc. rams, either from the enemy ramming you or you ramming them), re-rolls the armour penetration dice when ramming, and +1 to the vehicle damage roll, and godlike-impenetrable for a flyer armour of 13 13 11. Contains a twin-linked MAGNA-MELTA (WTF?), which is: range:18" str:8 AP:1 type:Heavy 1, large blast, melta. Sound fun, eh? Holds ten men, ideal for punching a hole in the enemy battle lines and disgorging troops, AND it's an assault vehicle, so straight into close combat (and no restriction against terminators, in fact, they only count as one man inside this, not two! *even BETTER in Dark Angels armies*). Now this means that the Caestus has to be fast, and it is! Its type is: Flyer (hover mode), and it STILL can ram/tankshock while zooming. Comes stock with extra armour, and Ceramite shielding (immunity to 'melta' rule). Options are: Firefury missile battery (range: 36" str:6 AP:4 type:Heavy 4, blast, twin-linked, one-use), Teleport homer, and Frag assault launchers. One should use the Caestus to ram straight through the strongest point in your enemies force, in most battles you'll be there on turn one, thanks to the 36" afterburner. Ram a tank with this (Generally given the colossal afterburner you'll give them a S10 hit) and then deploy the men inside (preferably dedicated H2H troops), and charge straight in against the nearest infantry, or if you feel like it, shove a grenade up a nearby tank's tailpipe. The latest rules for the Caestus are in Imperial Armour: Volume 2, 2nd Edition which explicitly gives it an exception to the supersonic rule where it can choose to enter hover mode and the passengers can disembark.

Heavy Support

• Devastator Squad - These guys got better, and hot damn did they need to! This can be where you get your cheap, en mass anti-air: missile launchers + flakk missiles x4 + 70 pts. to start with the squad offers 4 flakk missile shots a turn for about 170 pts, although Dark Angels can field a Mortis-pattern Dreadnought with two twin-linked autocannons for 135 points. If you are looking for cheap AA, the Mortis can deliver a more accurate barrage coming from a more durable platform, unless you're not allowed to use Forge World models in your tournament. Alternatively, these guys can use heavy bolters at no extra cost (Minus the flakk missile upgrade), and they shine in games below 1500 pts. against Orks, Guards, Daemons, ect. So if you take them, get the Veteran sergeant carry a power sword and either a Plasma pistol or a bolter, and go for the cheap heavy weapons (I wouldn't recommend going for two of each). But in bigger point games, get the Dark Talon or a Predator to do your bidding instead.

• Land Raider - The classic schizo version. Comes with 2 Twin-Linked Lascannon sponsons and a Heavy Bolter. In some lists it could see some use (Deathwing spam with no Dreadnoughts (WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT) comes to mind), but for most cases I'd suggest leaving this alone and choosing the Crusader variant instead.

• Land Raider Crusader - Your premier Deathwing carrying Metal Box. Rolls with a Twin-Linked Assault Cannon, a Multi-Melta, two Hurricane Bolters, and lets whatever assaults out of it count as having Frag Grenades for the same price as the schizo version. Why you wouldn't choose this variant is beyond me. Can get a MOTHERFUCKING Venerable upgrade. Stick a Power Field-carrying Techmarine near it and you have a nearly unkillable bawks.

• Land Raider Redeemer - Used for when you need to apply more fire. For 5 points cheaper than the Crusader, it replaces the hurricane bolters and four models worth of transport capacity for two Flamestorm Cannons. The addition of two strength 6 AP 3 templates helps melt power armored foes. The lack of the torrent rule does mean that you will be up close to utilize all your guns, but since it's an assault vehicle just slap some Thunder Hammer Termies inside and drive closer to hit them with your sword(hammer). For added shenanigans against mechanized infantry lists, take a multi-melta, use it with Power of the Machine Spirit to take away their metal bawkses and the Flamestorm Cannons to incinerate the fewlz inside.

• Land Raider Helios (Forgeworld) - It thinks it's a Whirlwind on steroids, which comes stock with twin-linked lascannon sponsons. More survivable and versatile than the Whirlwind, but is definitely not worth the points cost unless you go for the anti-air version, since the Ordnance rules on the Launcher cause every other weapon on the tank to snap-fire at BS1, even if you PotMS with them. Also carries six models for some insane reason. If you ask us, it'd probably be better off not being able to transport infantry in exchange for two more gun mounts, probably autocannons. Mais c'est la vie.
  • ALTERNATE TAKE: If you prefer, you can swap the ordnance whirlwind for the AA version, which works very well as an enemy vehicle hunter, the twin-linked "heat seeking" krak missile launcher can used PotMS to shoot a flyer separately from the lascannons (don't forget it has interceptor too!) OR all weapons can be used on ground targets to obliterate ground vehicles like a lascannon predator. Not bad if you're only transporting six models anyways (i.e. HQ + command squad) since it's basically thirty points to upgrade the heavy bolter to a krak missile launcher for breaching bunkers and tanks before assaulting the soft fleshy people inside as it is still an assault vehicle. Not that a command squad needs a LR, but this could be an awesome choice for them if you do it anyways. Can also be given a Multi-Melta if you want to go nuts for a premier tank hunter which can even outperform the Achilles (below) for LESS points.

• Land Raider Achilles (Forgeworld) - Oh hell yes. For the same price as the Terminus Ultra, this beast sports a Thunderfire Cannon and twin-linked multi-melta sponsons, has immunity to the Melta and Lance special rules, puts a -1 penalty on most other attacks, can carry six models, and doesn't go 'splodey. Put a scout squad and a techmarine in it, plonk it down on an objective, and watch your opponent throw a shit fit. Eldar and Dark Eldar will really Rage at it since that don't have much anti-tank outside of meltas and lances. Tthough, they have haywire/D-weapon, and you really should beware them, as hawks, wraithguards, witches and scourges would blow your "expensive but invincible" tank in eye blink, once they came in threat range. Follow with cheap librarian with bike and Powerfield generator for a 4++ (divination for rerollable inv save shenanigans). Just try and destroy that platform of death, I dare you...)

• Spartan Assault Tank (Forgeworld) - Forgeworld takes the old schizophrenic Land Raider, and pumps it up with steroids. Fucking five hull points, two twin-linked two-shot lascannons (it almost gets off as many lascannon shots as a terminus ultra while still being able to carry troops, doesn't go boom when you roll badly, and gets way more goodies), TL heavy bolters, transport capacity of 25, in-built extra armor, good-old 14/14/14, PotMS and Assault Vehicle. You even can take frag launchers (which got far more awesome with the new grenade rules) and ceramite shielding (fuck you, meltaguns) for a marginal increase in points. Meaning it can do the roles of the Terminus Ultra, the Achilles, and the Ares all at the same time, all it really needs are some burny weapons. But what are the drawbacks you ask? This uber metal box can not be taken as a dedicated transport at all. Also, as a Forgeworld model, it will cost you a unicorn's soul.
  • At only 45 points more, there is no reason to take the Godhammer landraider over this beast ever again.
  • Your opponent might hate your guts if you field this.

• Predator - If you want to kill infantry, add Heavy Bolter sponsons and nothing else. It's dirt cheap (95pts), and can threaten light vehicles with its Autocannon. If you want something more for popping tanks, keep the Autocannon turret and slap on the Lascannon sponsons. This is 115pts, and does its job. The Tri-Las is not bad if you face Monsterous Creatures often, and it can also pop Land Raiders better. Going overboard with the Lascannons is expensive though, so bear that in mind.

• Relic Predator Executioner (Forgeworld) - Do you remember Leman Russ Executioner? Well, space marines look at it, and say "we need something like that". With 3-shot plasma cannon this thing would blast MEQ and TEQ from table next turn they come in range. Additionally, you can swap main gun for heavy conversion beamer - this would only work better on high distances, and force you to move or shoot, but 48-72" S10 AP1 big blast shot would retake the price of tank the second it shot - think of it like a long range Vindicator.

• Predator Infernus (Forgeworld) - Predator with turret mounted flamestorm cannon (those AP3 flamethrower from Redeemer). While highly devastating at close range it's just too slow. Slow flamer tanks sucks. If you want one that bad, just take allied Blood Angels with a Baal Pred. If this thing come close to any non-TEQ infantry, it would ruin their day, and then die to a single melta shot, or hail of krak grenades. But most commonly it would just die, because big scary flamer, approaching your lines attract a LOT of fire. Thank god, this tank is also cheap, so you can use it as expendable fire magnet. Alternatively Infernus can exchange his super-flamer for MAGNA-MELTA (R18 S8 AP1 Heavy1, Large Blast, Melta), transforming into wannabe-Vindicator.

• Whirlwind - Your artillery piece. Can't do shit against vehicles, but hordes fear it. 20 points cheaper than in the last codex. The Whirlwind may or may not be used depending on the point size and who you're facing. In games below 1000pts, you can find use for these against lightly armoured infantry. It can also help slow down MEQs from advancing into close combat, which isn't bad for it's points. However, because you can only take one per a slot, and can't squardron them, they eat up a valuable Heavy Support slot, competing with Predators and Devastator Squads/Contempor Mortis Dreadnaughts. As it is, this is a fine choice in low point games, but quickly loses its use when you go past 1000pts.

• Whirlwind Hyperios (Forgeworld) - This thing is supposed to be your main ground based anti-air, but it sucks. One skyfire/interceptor krak shot per turn, no longer twin-linked against ground targets as of IA2:2nd (but still heat-seeking against aircraft) and you can not squadron this thing like IG player squadron their Hydras. Just take Devastators or a Contemptor Mortis.

• Relic Whirlwind Scorpius (Forgeworld) - Unlike the standard Whirlwind, the Scorpius fires a small blast, but at S8 and AP3 it eats marines and light vehicles for breakfast. And if it stands still it can fire D3+1 templates. It is a relic vehicle so take an Interrogator Chaplain if you use a lot of similar Forgeworld stuff.

• Vindicator - This tank features a very scary gun. A very scary Strength 10 AP2 Large Blast gun. This tank is a massive fire magnet, and thus probably won't get to drop its hot steamy load over an unfortunate squad. It has AV13 on the front though, so if your Demolisher Cannon gets blown off it's still great for tank shocking.

• Land Speeder Vengeance (New Garbage Unit) - at 140 pts, just forget it take a Vindicator. Someone on The Rock one day, likely after a lengthy campaign against Orks, took a look at the venerable land speeder and said "needs more dakka!" Always a welcome idea, but they messed up the dakka-to-weight ratio. Comes with an assault cannon and the plasma storm battery, which has two shooting profiles: heavy 1 large blast, great for messing up blobs, and heavy 3, great for glancing your own speeder to death under the new Gets Hot rules. Like we said, those 140 points are better spent on something more sturdy. The Land Speeder Vengeance is literally just a land speeder profile, meaning you're paying 90 goddamn points purely for the plasma storm battery attached to it.
  • If you have one of these (which is only acceptable if you magnetized it to run it as either this for gimmick games, or as the vastly superior Protoss Arbiter Darkshroud), bring a Librarian as one of your HQ choices. The Primaris power for Divination, Prescience, allows you to re-roll all misses on the target unit. Glancing yourself to death with Gets Hot rolls effectively gets eliminated, and it lets you re-roll Gets Hot and your Scatter should you fire the large plasma blast template. It doesn't eliminate the fact it is overcosted like woah, but it does make it pretty killy.

• Storm Eagle (Forge World) - Your transport Flyer. (IA12 moved it to Heavy) Occupies the middle-ground between the Stormraven and the Thunderhawk. Transport capacity of 20, with deathwing terminators and jump infantry counting as 2 models each. Impressive arsenal of weaponry, standard armament: Hull-mounted twin-linked Heavy Bolter, Hull-mounted Vengeance Launcher (Range:48"|Str:5|AP:4|Heavy 2, Large Blast). Optional armament includes: Switching Heavy bolters for Multi-meltas or a Typhoon missile launcher, and adding 4 Hellstrike Missiles or 2 Twin-linked Lascannon under the wings. Also get ceramite shielding, and the 'Power of the Machine Spirit' special rule, along with 12|12|12 armour. Can also deep strike, and disembarking infantry can assault in the same turn. = *WIN*
  • While passengers on zooming flyers after crashing is always a worry, remember that this flyer is considerably harder than most other flyers barring the Heldrake anyway, at AV12 all round, HP4 and ceramite plating it is pretty much invulnerable to small arms fire, so your opponent will have to dedicate his biggest weapons to take it out; even when it decides to hover. (Therefore NOT shooting at your newly disembarked terminators). Also, don't forget that with all things Dark Angels, you use SYNERGY to get the most out of your units, a hovering flyer gets a jink save that can be boosted by having a Darkshroud nearby, or you attach a techmarine with a power field to the passenger unit and he blankets the vehicle thanks to the 7th Edition FAQ again, hell, the force field can even protect the passengers if it explodes mid air.

• Fire Raptor Gunship (Forge World) - Official rules in IA2:2nd. Comes naked with a TL Avenger Bolt Cannon (being a proper manly S6 AP3 7 shots instead of the peewee Nephilim's AP4 5 Shots), 4 Stormtrike Missiles (S8 Concussive, NOT Ordnance, YAY) and two Independent-Turret Quad Heavy Bolters (which can be replaced with TL Autocannon for free); the latter which aside from firing at their own targets as rumored, don't count towards the number of weapons fired! With all the twin-linked goodness, Strafing Run and PotMS/Independent-turrets; this bastard can dump its entire payload on FOUR SEPARATE TARGETS in a single turn and hit almost every time and it's only 45 points more than the Nephilim = BARGAIN (except for FW prices). It is a relic vehicle, so if you want to take more than one (or any other relic vehicle) remember to grab an Interrogator Chaplain as one of your HQ choices.

• Legion Rapier Battery (Forgeworld) - 1-3 Rapier Quad Linked Heavy Bolters (like on the Prometheus). Two of them are essentially a devastator squad. Though can be upgraded to Laser Destroyers, which is like a lascannon devastator squad with a shorter range but are twin-linked and give the ordnance ability of an extra chance of penetration against vehicles. The drawback to this is that they don’t have the mobility of a tank or Heavy Support Squad would give you. You’ll want to set them up in terrain somewhere in the backfield and not move them after they are deployed. Points for points the Rapier will be cheaper than many of the Heavy Support choices and will probably be just as lethal.

• Deathstorm Drop Pod (Forgeworld) - Expecting the drop pod that just landed to contain troops or a heavy weapons platform you don't have to worry about until next turn? SURPRISE! Whirlwind missiles! For you! In the face! There are two different versions though since GW cannot co-ordinate with Forgeworld: Though Imperial Armour 2 is more recent than Warzone: Damnos by a margin of a couple of months, Damnos is a valid core GW product (if your opponent argues with you over Forgeworld) and uses much the same rules as the Horus Heresy version which is even more recent than them both.
  • Warzone Damnos: It is considerably more reliable simply by dropping most of the old special rules and just saying "Hey, I've got FIVE whirlwind launchers!!" Each with independent machine spirits that can shoot in a different direction. While those that read the small print will find that it fires only the SMALL (3") blast markers, that downside is traded off with the fact that it forces re-rolls for pinning and morale checks.
  • IA2:2nd changed it AGAIN because of FW schizophrenia. It's gone back to what it used to be, meaning it spams proper whirlwind missiles on EVERYTHING on the turn it arrives, then reverts to a stationary whirlwind launcher for the rest of the game. The launchers may also be upgraded to assault cannons for an extra 20 points, but this should only be done if you expect it to survive more than one turn (and you really shouldn't). Very situational, but if your opponent fields lots of small units relatively close together, dropping this in the middle of them is almost guaranteed to ruin his day. Can't take a locator beacon, though and does not come with the Drop Pod Assault rule as standard, that has to be bought.

• Space Marine Sentry Gun Battery (Forge World) - From IA:12 you get a battery of up to three immobile twin-linked Heavy Bolters for the bargain cost of 15 points each and swap them for a Multi-melta for five or pay ten for TL Lascannons. Being automated, you have very little control over what they actually do in the battle, they select their own targets based on pre-set criteria, you basically just get to choose at deployment what their arcs are: 360 degrees but at 18" range, or 90 degrees at 36" range, so you're rarely going to be blasting things across the table with these things. You DO get the ability to deep strike them for a laugh or give them camo netting for stealth if you can set them up in a good spot to make them invulnerable to most shooting. (while you can pay the cost for both, just don't because it you deep strike into cover you are waiting for a mishap. Set them up behind an aegis defense line with camo for 2+ cover.
  • DON'T EVER mix and match guns or targeting criteria, nowhere in the rules do they say they deploy separately or behave any differently from any other artillery battery, meaning they should all be firing at the same target, which is still the one they select for themselves...
  • As a added bonus though, you can instead swap the guns for Hyperios Missile Launchers, which don't suffer from the firing modes rules, allowing you to direct the shots at your leisure. Basically krak missiles with skyfire and interceptor, this configuration does most jobs you ask it to without complaint, just don't waste the points (or the money) with the command platform, as by swapping one of the guns you've replaced the ability to fire three missiles at the same target with two missiles at different targets... it should have been a free upgrade or the unit needed to be bigger than three launchers... certainly not clever.

Dedicated Transports

Virtually identical to Ultramarines, so if you understand those then nothing much has changed.

• Rhino - A great transport, and dirt cheap. They can become a shield wall once you've dropped off the squad riding inside, and can attempt to repair themselves in the shooting phase. In a Deathwing/Ravenwing list, these will see very little use.
• Razorback - A Rhino with the transport capacity lowered, but with a big gun stuck onto it to compensate. Great for ferrying around Command Squads. The cheapest option is to keep the heavy bolter or switch it with a twin linked heavy flamer. But an extra heavy gun for only 20 points is almost never points misspent as razorbacks can be used in the same roll as a predator if you have a shortage of points or have run out of heavy support options. Dark Angels Razorbacks can also be equipped with a twin linked assault cannon in addition to all the other gun options you can choose. This gives you a lot of budget firepower and even more options for this little box. pair up the assault cannon with a flak missile equipped devastator squad to make absolutely positively certain that your opponents flying, vector striking, marine melting hell drake dies on turn one!
• Drop Pod - Enters play via Deep Strike and only mishaps if it goes completely off the board. Great for dropping a suicide Dreadnought behind a tank that needs liquidation. Also to keep in mind, is our Drop Pods have Drop Pod Assault. Pretty much when a Drop Pod successfully comes out of reserve, another one can come on the board without the need to roll for it. Good if you combine Assault Marines with Flamers and a Dreadnaught, as you can do some pretty good damage.
• Lucius Pattern Drop Pod (Forge World) - big dreadnought drop pod, the new IA:A put it back into a dedicated transport role and nerfed it incredibly. No longer can your close combat rape dreads charge out of it on the turn it arrives, (though oddly, the rules say that dreadnoughts CAN charge out of it if they decide to remain embarked for a turn, which it could do anyway since it's already an open topped transport) and now it just grants itself and its passenger the Shrouded USR the turn it arrives, so now there's a slightly lesser chance of having your dreadnought blown to bits that turn, but only slghtly. Also, this is the only drop pod you can fit Contemptor in. So what? They only Contemptor you'd take is the Mortis with 2 Assault Cannons/Autocannons and the Cyclone Missile Launcher anyway. Who needs a pod?

Fortifications

• Aegis Defense Lines: A cheap option to give cover to your gunline Tacs. Also comes with a Quad Gun, so you can skyfire whatever tries to bomb the shit out of you from the air. What's not to like? Stick 2 tactical squads behind it, and a command squad with standard of devastation. Laugh as you throw out 80+ bolter shots a turn.

• Skyshield Landing Pad: Meh, it's an okay choice for Dark Angels. The Invulnerable save you can get from it can help, tho for just 30 more pts, an Aegis Defense Lines with a Quad Gun is better.

• Imperial Bastion: Another good choice, comes with a Heavy Bolter on each side and can also take a Quad Gun. You can only fit limited amount inside of it tho, so keep that in mind. Pefect for a Devastator Squad tho.

• Fortress of Redemption: Unholy shit! This fortress is EXPENSIVE! For the price of A Land Raider, you get a big fortress that grants you generous cover saves, along with other cool stuff. Unless you're doing Tactical squads over Death/RavenWing units, you may want to save your points for something else.

Apocalypse Only Units

• Fellblade - This is your THIRTEEN BARRELS OF HELL, + 1BS.The Fellblade mounts a turret mounted twin 'accelerator cannon' which can fire either high explosive rounds (100" range, S8 AP3 ord1 7" blast) or armour piercing shells (100" range, heavy 1, S9 AP2, Armourbane, 3" blast). Add to that 2 quad lascannons, a twin heavy bolter and a hull demolisher cannon and you have an absolutely rapetastic monster.

• Thunderhawk Gunship - There is only one reason why you don't already have one, it costs a shitload of cash(£399), apart from this... small price... the Thunderhawk has virtually no downsides, at 700 points it's certainly expensive, and it doesn't have much armour (12,12,10) but it does have 3 structure points and is immune to the 'melta' special rule. It's title of gunship is well deserved, it has a turbo laser (yes a fucking strength D weapon with a 5" blast!!!), four twin-linked heavy Bolters, two Lascannons and 6 weapon pylons, which can contain bombs or Hellstrike missiles. It also has a "modest" transport capacity of 30, so you can hold an entire 10 man squad of Terminators in this thing AND a techmarine and servitors to keep the thing running (they ARE allowed to repair vehicles they're embarked on, awesome). You will almost never field more than one of these, fortunately, you only need one. The best way to use this vehicle is to get close combat Terminators right into the middle of the enemy's most dangerous shooting formation, then use the fearsome weapons on the gunship to destroy enemy vehicles that can insta-kill your guys, allowing your Terminators to destroy the shooty infantry and keep your grunts alive. Used properly this vehicle WILL make your opponent shit bricks, used improperly, it will do nothing but die uselessly as it gets pummeled by 700 points worth of enemy lascannons, rockets, missiles, battle cannon and lances, then it will explode and take the most of the rest of your army with it, because of this NEVER EVER keep it static, it's tempting to just hang back and pummel the enemies vehicles with the turbo laser, but don't.

• Thunderhawk Transporter - Get this if you if you have a burning desire to kneel down and sacrifice your money to the gods of Games Workshop. It costs the same amount of cash as the regular thunderhawk, and you'll probably end up wishing you had one of those instead. It's not that the transporter is awful, the ability to fly in a loaded up land raider and place it where you want is cool, you can even scoop up other vehicles while in hover mode without having to cease your movement. But unless you are playing on REALLY big gaming tables (we're talking the same size of games where Earthshaker guns run out of range.), there's no real need to do this and your Thunderhawk itself doesn't have much else to do with only a few heavybolters for its defense. Just get the regular Thunderhawk and for now and you'll feel less guilty.

• Cerberus Heavy Tank Destroyer - An odd superheavy tank. Its weapon is S10 AP1, but has no blast, so if you miss there's no consolation prize by accidentally wiping out a nearby unit (it is twin linked, so you're unlikely to miss). However, whatever it hits is raped. It fires D3 shots every time it fires and anything that somehow survives a penetrating hit from it can only snap-fire next turn (including other superheavies... neutering that poor emperor class titan.) but if it fails a penetrate ROLL (glances are fine) or to-wound its target (remember it's a primary weapon, so already gets re-rolls), it instead damages itself by an automatic hull point on a further roll of 1. It can be given the standard predator sponsons or pintle mounted heavy weapons, but you're probably going to want to load up on anti-tank and leave anti infantry to your other units.

• Typhon Heavy Siege Tank - It's a giant vindicator. Cheaper and better armoured than the Fellblade and more reliable than the Cerberus. It fires off a 7" Blast S10 AP1 weapon, which ignores cover, and so will erase entire units on 2s unless they have invulnerable saves. Can also be equipped with sponsons like a predator and pintlemounted options including heavy bolters, or a multi-melta. And unlike the Cerberus, since your main gun doesn't fill an uber specialised role you can choose what you want and split your fire to shoot in all directions and pick your targets by relevance. Also give it armoured ceramite so it can never be killed by melta & lances.

• Masters of the Chapter - Azrael + 4-10 Captains + "Honour Guard". From the outset, this doesn't look like theres a lot going for it. Azrael's Lion Helm is made redundant since all the captains have Iron Halos, and unlike Codex Carines you don't get uber wargear to beef up your captains. However, since you don't have Honour Guard the same way as Codex Marines or Blood Angels do, you can improvise with the next best thing ("Forging the Narrative" in Apocalypse suggests taking the closest relevant unit)... ie: a Deathwing Command Squad. This is actually considerably harder now, since they all get 4++ saves from Azrael (saving some expense if you don't want Storm Shields), Feel No Pain from an Apothecary and use of good Standards and Champions. Just don't add Sammael to the formation since it will screw him over.

• Deathwing Redemption Force - Belial and 6 Squads of regular Deathwing & 4 Squads of Deathwing Knights. This is one of the most badass formations available. You don't need "full" squads, so can get away with having a formation of around 50 men (which is therefore smaller than the 1st company formation). EVERYONE in the formation gets Rending USR on ALL attacks, shooting and melee, making them horrifying. Also, no-one can take look-out-sir rolls against this formation, so there is literally no-where to hide from these guys.

• Ravenwing Huntmasters - 5 FULL Ravenqing Attack squadrons + 1 squad of Black Knights + as many Darkshrouds as you like. Both of the shrouds effect ranges are doubled for the game and also you may turbo-boost and still shoot once per game. It's an okay formation if you have enough Ravenwing, which is the problem. Thats a lot of bikes.

• Talon of Vengeance (Pandorax) - Even a dedicated apocalypse formation can't save Dark Angels from how poor their flyers are... You get 1 Nephilim and 2-4 Dark Talons. The Nephilim does nothing here, and the Dark Talons can combo their stasis bombs to lock enemy units out of the game temporarily. The length of time depending on how many bombs hit the unit. This formation isn't really worth it unless you're dropping all those bombs on a Reaver Titan or better to freeze it out of the game for a turn. The problem is that you only get one bomb per talon and the pay-off really doesn't change the game in any meaningful sense. Should have had greater effect like freezing units out permanently like Lukas the Trickster

• Thunderhead Squadron (Pandorax) - 3 Darkshrouds, 1+ Vengeance & 1+ Support Squadron. Whenever 2 Shrouds are within 6" of each other your opponent will not be allowed to draw line of sight through the space between them. This is also close enough to grant stealth to each other for 2+ cover saves just by moving. In addition the whole formation gets shrouded and scout regardless of their position, so can be pretty cool.

• Suppression Force (Damnos) - Worth a good mention since you get 2+ Whirlwinds and a Land Speeder of your choice. Considering you get some pretty cool Land Speeder options, you could go with a Darkshroud for some survivability along with your unlimited range / twin-linked / double-shot Whirlwinds. Or you could go one better and take the Ravenwing Grand-Master's Land Speeder for AV14 & 4++ and its own twin-linked weapons.

Allies

Battle Brothers

• Black Templar: Now part of Vanilla Marines, but don't stop there. Black Templars have gotten better now they have access to the new shiny stuff Vanilla gets. Plus they still kept some of their traditional feats (Land Raider Crusaders are still Dedicated Transports to Crusader Squads). Crusader Squads are the Beatstick, throw in some Neophyte with Shotguns and they can be both a Dakka and chopy unit. Combine this with the Flyers they have, it makes them somewhat a versitile ally choice. Although if you want pure melee punch, Blood Angels can do this better. Still, Black Templars are not a bad choice.

• Blood Angels: Probably the best CQC Allies for the DA. A lot of their units are fast moving and hits foes really hard and they aren't bad at shooting. But in all honesty, we have a lot of options to gun Xenos/Heretics down dead, so you should just focus on stuff that rapes in melee and shit like that. Sadly, sanguinary priests blood chalice works only with BA units, so no FNP and Furious Charge to your Deathwing knights. However Shield of Sanguinius works with all units and Darkshroud gives Stealth to all friendly units, not only DA ones. So you can give all your army a nice +4 cover save. FNP Fearless Marines with 4++ save and maybe pseudo Fleet from Azrael are great also.

• Imperial Guard: A great opportunity of mending the fails of your Codex. Forget flakk missiles, Dark Talons and Nephilim Fighters, just paint black a Vendetta, draw some feathers on the wings and call it Dark vendetta, for instance. You can even take a squadron of 2 or 3. And,of course, you can take a blob of guards, join Azrael and have 30-50 miniatures with ++4 save, Fearless, and Furious Charge. Weeee!

• Vanilla Marines: They're basically the exact same as Dark Angels: shooty and power armor. Hell, Greenwing are identical in points and near-identical in loadout. The new Codex brought in new units like Centurions and decent anti-aircraft tanks in addition to the units that Dark Angels couldn't get in the first place, like half-decent aircraft, masters of the forge, sternguard & vanguard veterans, ironclad dreadnoughts, scout bikers, thunderfire cannons as well as detachment-wide chapter tactics, all of which allows you to tailor any allies detachment to make up for any deficiencies in your own force. Or vice versa to make things extra interesting. Also, don't miss Chapter Master Smashbane, which is damn good HtH unit in Ravenwing and Greenwing.

Allies of Convenience

• Eldar: Eldar aren't as much of a no-brainer ally as they used to be, especially since Runes of Warding were nerfed into the ground. They still have greast options ;a Spiritseer with Conceal and a unit of Rangers makes a tough-to-shift, relatively-killy unit for objective camping. The jetbike units and Wave Serpents are FUCKING AMAZING and make an excellent pairing with the Ravenwing.

• Grey Knights: Generally the same as our Deathwing, except they're psychic-aholic rather than Gunzerker. We can bring Terminators as troops like they do, except theirs are basically cheaper unless they go overboard with them. Overall there are better options, but taking them can be fun if you're going against CSM and Daemons, so you can take on the Chaos Marines, and the Grey Knights can rape Daemons REAL hard! Don't forget Coteaz and his retinue with LOTS of cheap special weapons.

• Sisters of Battle: A surprisingly good choice fluffwise as well as crunchwise. Angry battle nuns fighting with angry battle monks? Looks like sunday school let out early this week. The current actd of faith system has crippled the army as a primary detachment, but makes the sisters an essentially awesome supplementary army for almost everybody. For Dark Angels specifically they bring a lot to the table: strong mobile close combat, ally with sisters and bring Saint Celestine and some seraphim. The Avenger strike fighter is a good choice. Sisters 6++ save not enough? why not stand them next to one of our cheap as hell Librarians sporting a power field generator and boost them to a 4++. And lastly who doesn't want to get the Sisters chocolate flamers all up into our plasma peanut butter?

• Space Wolves: Lets see what wolfies offer to us: psychic protection that sadly also affect our psykers, cheap servos with the possibility of taking one special weapon on 5 man squads, razorspam, scoring terminators with mixed arms, missile spam, divided fire and giant wolverine steeds. Pretty solid, but Dark Angels can achieve most of those things on their own, and instead of wolves have bikes which look less stupid in the future. And Dark Angels at least have bad fliers and expensive flak missiles which are better than no fliers nor AA weapons. Dark Talons or Black Knights Grenade Launchers however combo well with Jaws of the World Wolf. If Space Wolves would be brothers in arms they will be better allies (just imagine Azrael with 15 Blood Claws with 4++ save, Fearless and Furious Charge).

• Tau Empire: Not a bad choice, especially since they just got a new codex. As usual, their basic philosophy is "extra fire power that can help wreck shit at long range". The Crisis suits are golden, and goes well with a Ravenwing list, as they're both mobile and shooty with Plasma Rifles and other useful weapons. Hammerheads are also a worthwhile choice if you choice the Railgun option, and fire warriors with their Pulse Rifles will prove to be better than the Boltgun. Play them correctly, and the enemy won't be alive to get close enough. They should be too occupied to be dealing with Fire Warriors, at the least. Unless you're going plasma-heavy, as they are probably the one army with more plasma than you (take a Hammerhead with tau Ion Cannon and disruption pods. Do it!). Ion has been introduced, and it is soooo much better. Ion Cannon now has a new trick up its sleeve. At S8 AP3 Large Blast when overcharged, nothing short of a TEQ will get an armour save. They also have the best long-range anti-tank in the game, so they can provide fire support for your Spess Mehreens. (Look to Riptide if you're interested in Long Range Support).

Desperate Allies

• Necrons: Another shooty list aside from Tau and Guards. Necrons can provide you a catacomb command barge beatstick, something sufficiently terrifying to keep your enemy from moving into assault for an extra round or two (especially if they're using an expensive HQ choice). Necron troops choices can serve as highly efficient response groups, combining four haywire shots and ten rapid-fire gauss zaps with one of the most universally effective fliers in the game for a meager 190 points. Would you rather have two terminators and one assault cannon, or one annihilation barge (90 points for a tesla destructor, tesla cannon, and AV13 until they start beating on it)? To put the cherry on top, none of these units really need or want to be close to the rest of your army, so you can easily step around the one eye open rule. Want an ally that can give you your daily doses of speed, anti-armor, and AP2 melee without stealing all your thunder(points)? Look no further than these badass space Egyptians.

• Orks: Want a horde? The orks love pushy melee fighting. Though they might be slow, a footslogged group of standard ork boys can shield your more powerful and expensive units with a wall of cheap meat. They'll provide a screen against assaults (which your troops can then jump in on, if you so desire), and a 5+ cover save. The one eye open rule is pretty irritating here, but 6th edition's premeasuring rule should let you keep that separation, and even if you can't... well, it's only a 1/6 chance anyway, and it doesn't occur in melee combat.

Other Detachments

Inquisition (Battle Brothers)

Why haven't you taken it yet? Seriously, you get 3 Elites Choices (Read: 3 units of Inquisitorial Henchmen) and each of them can take a transport like a Rhino, or a Chimera or a Land Raider or a Valkyrie. That makes it worth it right up front, but with the right load out, they can fill holes in your army, so this should be your first choice right here, but their biggest draw is that they allow you to take an additional allied detachment as well. Consider taking a Inquisitor in a Valkyrie and a tarpit or two of Acolytes, while still having a full Guard artillery battery and doing some screening with large blocks of bolter brothers; or a four lascannon Devastator squad buffed by a psyker Inquisitor while Space Wolves take care of the melee combat. If you want to be a douche, attach an Inquisitor to Dev Centurions w/ Grav Cannons and roll for Perfect Timing. If there's something your current army is lacking, the Inquisition has something that can compensate for it.

Imperial Knights (Battle Brothers)

An Errant Knight titan is probably a good bet for players looking for some reliable long range anti-tank/anti-TEQ killer. The Paladin Knight brings some long range high strength high AP shooting (Double shot battle cannon? Hell yeah) to an army that can really use some for only two termies more than two Leman Russ Tanks. And these things score (well, maybe, the Facebook post wasn't clear with whether the allied ones score), so charge him at the enemy lines faster than you can say DISTRACTION CARNIFEX. Thanks to their Str. D CC arm, they can reliably deal with with most monstrous creatures with ease, barring Skarbrand and maybe a Wraithknight. Also, Seer/Screamer-Star or any other re-rollable 2+ bullshit? Meet D-Weapon. If you fight a Riptide heavy list, these might become your best friend you still cannot catch the fuckers. Bitch please, you have a 12 movement and a 2D6 charge. The Riptide has a 6 move and a 2D6 jump, and limited space to escape with given how they'll be hiding at the back like sissies. Plus, they're shit at killing the Knight.

Legion of the Damned (Battle Brothers)

Because it is now a Codex in its own right, Dark Angels can troll themselves by taking mysterious Astartes who appear of no-where and disappear just as quickly. You couldn't take them before, so now this is a treat. Like the Inquisition codex, the LotD can be taken as an additional detachment separate from the Allied detachment which does not interfere with your other allies selections.

You only have one unit, but you can bring up to 4 of them. You get Fear, Fearless, Slow and Purposeful, 3++, and all shooting Ignores Cover. Yes, all of it, including any special or heavy weapons. They are also one of the 2 units that can take Heavy Flamers. As a Dark Angel you will be used to things Deep Striking, meaning you can one-two punch a combination following a Deathing Assault. On the downside they can't be joined by Independent Characters (not that you'd need to) and you don't care about chapter tactics, since that is a vanilla thing. Unfortunately everything these guys do, your Deathwing can also do and in some cases do better, and in many cases your terminators can score while 3++ is just as vulnerable to high volumes of high AP fire (lasguns/bolters) as greenwing are. The big draw here is Ignores Cover, which when coupled with the flexible armament of a tactical squad essentially makes them just that: A very good (non-scoring) alternative to a Tactical Squad.

• Animus Malorum: Sergeant Centurius' soul-eating skull gives the bearer and his unit FnP, and any unit which fails a Fear, Morale, or Pinning check within 12" of the bearer has a randomly chosen model immediately removed as a casualty with no saves allowed (although LoS! can still be used). Every model that is removed this way grants a +1 modifier to the FnP roll (up to a 2+) for the remainder of that turn. At only 35 points for a sergeant to use it, it's a steal.
• With the increasing amount of low AP weaponry and cover ignoring that is 6th these guys have some merit. They can contest and mow things down. Strike them near things with low AP weapons (Give them a Plasma Cannon to see S7 AP 2 Ignores Cover Blast) or the backfield and watch them turn firefights around. They will die to massed fire (But then again, what in this game doesn't?) but can tank low volume high power hits. Sure, you can minmax a list and leave them at home but how many of you are playing in world class tournaments and need 1d4chan tactics? They are good, but not uber. Most of all, they are fun.
• Pro-Tip: You can use them as mobile cover for any troops and/or assault screens, especially if they have the Animus and/or rolled Spectral Bulwark.

Dataslate Formations

• Astartes Storm Wing - Your opportunity to get decent flyers in your army without paying the allies tax. One Stormraven and two Stormtalons, customisable the way you want. Unfortunately due to very specific wordings of the rules, your units may not embark upon the Stormraven at all. Nor do these units benefit from Chapter Tactics, (so no Iron Hands cheese). Despite all this, this formation gives you an impressive amount of firepower from the skies that you could otherwise not get.

• Reclusiam Command Squad - Erm... okay, you get a Codex Space Marines Command Squad that you must tool up with the regular options and take a Chaplain along with it, for this you the Crusader USR and unlimited hatred. To be honest there's no real need to take this. Since your own command squads are already more varied and your Interrogator Chaplains are better. Though if you needed a half-decent beatstick with chapter tactic of your choice, you could do worse. But then why not go the whole nine yards and actually have a Codex Marines allied detachment?

• Cypher - NO IDIOT, YOU CAN'T TAKE HIM. However he is worth a substantial mention in that if any of your opponents bring him, you Dark Angels players get a few benefits to even the playing field. DO NOT FORGET THEM. First: All Inner Circle Members get Zealot and are now stand-in Chaplains and your army got a little bit better in melee. Also this zealotry is not lost if CypherTHE HIGH RANKING TRAITOR is defeated. Second: If CypherTHE HIGH RANKING CHAOS SCUM goes down anywhere within D6" of one of your Dark Angels, you get 3 Victory Points at the end of the battle, possibly a game winner. Most of your special characters can comfortably take him down in close combat (especially with Hatred). If you're not aiming directly for him you're obviously a TRAITOR AND MUST BE PURGED. Third: Do not forget that your opponent's Warlord's leadership is reduced by one just for including CypherTHE HIGH RANKING FILTHY HERETICAL TRAITOR. This can be extremely important for things like Psychic powers, or Ld bubbles. Unfortunately now that you know the weaknesses of the fallen, the Deathwing will be at your door momentarily to either purge or recruit you.

Building your army

Two Troops and an HQ is your starting point as always. We recommend two tactical squads and something with a psychic hood.

Secondly, get the new fucking codex! Sometimes you'll see people playing Dark Angels with the Vanilla Codex. In 5th Edition this was fine, but in 6th Edition these people are heretics. Smack them up the head for me if you see them! Otherwise, the Dark Vengeance box set is a good place to start for models. For about 100 US dollars (£61.50 British pounds), you get 5 Terminators, 3 awesome looking bikers, and a tactical squad with two (maybe 3 if you're lucky enough to get the limited edition) HQs if possible swap the chaos marines for more angels this gives you 10 terminators, 6 bikers, 4 HQ and 2 troops that can be made with 2 plasma guns or 2 plasma cannons. Either that, or buy the Ravenwing Battleforce set and a few Bikes of your choice.

Other than that, DON'T pin all your hopes on Deathwing only, Ravenwing only or the DeathRaven thing. It just don't work like it used to; yes termies and bikes can stand up to more abuse in 6th edition but there are some things out there that will happily shovel abuse onto you to scrub the table with your costly Deathwing and Ravenwing squads. Let me put it this way: DA are the shooty marines. What do shooty armies need? You guessed it, MOAR DAKKA. How do you get more dakka on the board? By taking more guys with guns. You should be using termies and bikes to support your troops, not the other way around.

Tactics

The following aren't guaranteed tactics for success, but they give you a general idea on what do.

Speeder Spear

• Fuck of a lot of land speeders.
• Darkshrouds are your friend, so be sure to take some and grant some survivability to your spearhead.
• For supporting Dakka, bring on some Land Speeder Vengeances to coat your foes in steaming plasma.
• Cheap librarian to Prescience your Land Speeders.
• Rhinos/razors full of tac squads to hold down any objectives.
• Considering the sheer amount of Typhon Missile speeders you should be fielding (and if you're not then you're an idiot) you should have no problem glancing AV14 vehicles to death from the other side of the board.

Raven Wing

For 1750 points, a nice Ravenwing list:

• HQ: Sammael and a lvl 2 librarian.
• Troops: 2 Ravenwing bike squads with melta, flamer, and a veteran sergeant with plasma and a power weapon. For Sammael´s squad, replace power weapon with a powerfist. An attack bike with heavy bolter and a land speeder with multi-melta and an assault cannon.
  • How can the sergeant have two weapons?- The Raven wing Sergeant may take items from melee and/or ranged weapons so it can have 2 weapons.
    • For ranged weapons, it states that a model can replace his bolt pistol and/or close combat weapon with a ranged weapon. For melee weapons, it states a model can replace one weapon with one of the melee weapons. The sergeant only has a bolt pistol, hence he can only replace it with one weapon.
      • Actually, the sergeant also has a twin-linked boltgun on his bike, and it says that a model can replace one weapon for a melee weapon, so nothing is stopping the sergeant from ripping off his bike's boltgun for a power weapon and replacing his bolt pistol with a plasma pistol.
• Fast Attack: 2 Ravenwing dark talons and one dark shroud.
• Heavy Support: Land speeder vengeance and one devastator squad with 4 lascannons

You can swap the land speeder vengeance for more lascannon devastators or an aegis defense line.

Deathwing Footslog

• Belial, as many Terminators as possible. Make sure to put one Chainfist in every squad to deal with vehicles. Assault Cannons are nice to have. (Possibly consider investing in Cyclone Missile Launchers for 5 more points per than the Assault Cannons. In my opinion, they're a much better anti-everything weapon. Although, keep in mind they both will only do anything to AV14 on 6s, but the AC will pen on those. :V)
• Deep Strike into opportune locations, gun shit down.
• Employ the 24"-0" rule - stay at 24" range unless you're assaulting.
• Try to block line of sight as much as possible to keep your squads kicking.
• Attempt not to string out your forces so that if one squad is in trouble, another one can bail them out.
• Remember - Terminator Armour makes you Relentless. Move and shoot like there's no tomorrow.

Deathwing Troll Assault

• Two squads of terminators, ten men each. Have Belial leading one.
• Belial's Squad takes a couple of Assault Cannons.
• Second squad footslogs, takes cyclone launchers.
• Turn one, deep strike Belial's squad right behind something valuable. No scatter thanks to Belial. Pump an assault cannon up a tank's rear armour, use split fire to target a second one, or a squishy unit with your other guns. Just remember split fire must be declared before shooting. You have now utterly destroyed your opponent's gun line. Or you haven't, and the enemy focuses his fire meaning a quarter of your army just got wiped off the board. If you pull this tactic you're safer with cheaper and harder to kill DW Knights, but DW shooty Termies have greater potential and get an added alpha strike. Your choice to make.
• Second squad stands off, hugs cover and whittles the survivors away with cyclones while your opponent weeps at the sheer ridiculousness of losing his entire armour support on turn 1.
• Laugh.

Mechanised Deathwing

• Belial, 3 squads of Deathwing, 2 Land Raider Crusaders, Terminator Librarian with the Divination Primaris power and whatever other power you want.
• Stick Belial in one squad, which rides in one Land Raider, Librarian in one other, which rides in the other Land Raider, while the other squad sits back as fire support or something.
• Cyclone Missile Launchers are your friend, use them on EVERY SQUAD, or you're doing it wrong.
• This list should total 1500pts if you give the Deathwing 1 Chainfist per squad, and 1 Cyclone Missile Launcher per squad, and chuck a Combi-Weapon on the Terminator Librarian.

Total cost for this list--Belial (190), Libby (level 1) (95), 2xLRC (500), 3xDW (680) with Cyclone and CF (90). Minus the combi weapon and level 2 upgrade on libby, this clocks in at 1555 (so not a 1500 pt list). Possibly a decent build in 1850 if a squad of knights tacked on? Problem , of course, will be termi survivability

DeathRaven

• Belial, Sammael or Azrael (optional), Deathwing Terminators, and Ravenwing Bikers. Throw in whatever you want for anti-tank.
• Set up the Bikes on the 12" mark, Scout forwards.
• Mass Deep Strike Terminators near your Bikes if you can play 4000 pts.
• Shoot everything in sight.
• Camp the Terminators onto the objectives, should there be any. They won't be getting off them any time soon. If you are using Azrael, keep him with the Terminators to buff them further.

Gunline

• A Librarian with Divination, a Command Squad with the Standard of Devastation, 2 10-Man Tactical Squads and a Darkshroud.
• Really easy to use: Place the Command Squad with Librarian in the middle, then one squad to either side, Darkshroud behind them -> anything that moves into 24" gets up to 100 bolter shots that possibly ignore cover, force armour rerolls or hit better, while your marines enjoy a comfy 4+ cover save.
• For even more protection, get either an Aegis Defense Line, or a Techmarine to fortify a ruin. Both 50 points, both grant 3+ cover.
• Consider an Apothecary and one or two Storm Shields in the Command Squad to further protect the Librarian and the standard bearer.
• With all the gimmicks, this clocks in at a little over 700 points, leaving you with plenty room to get some anti armour, anti air or whatever your twisted mind desires.

• Or just replace the darkshroud with a devastator squad packing plasma cannons, and reduce the 2 10-man Tactical squads to 5, and I believe that this clocks in at just around 500 points. It's a wonderful brick of cheese for low point games.

Firewing

• Right off the bat this is 180 points with three land speeders. You start with the standard land speeder, then you notice that you can take two heavy flamers per speeder. Grab five of the speeders, add the double heavy flamers and deep strike directly next to a large and expensive unit. Watch as your opponent tries to make saves from ten heavy flamers, and enjoy.However, since deepstriking models must be placed in base to base contact with each other and you can not fire flamers through your own models, it's probably best to take three land speeders.

ModernThe same Razorspam of always

• 2 basic Librarians with Power Field Generators and Bikes.
• 2-3 6 minimum. They're only AV11 so if AT glances in their general direction (pun intended) they're fucked. Multiples of them mean you're less likely to run out of scoring units and your list is harder to cripple. Tactical Squads of 5 Marines with Meltagun in Las-Plas Razorbacks (155 points per unit)
• 1160pts, or thereabouts. Fill up the remaining 800pts with a Ravenwing Command Squad with 2 additional members, Grenade Launcher and Standad of Devastation and two 6-man units of Ravenwing Bikers. Upgrade some of your Tactical Squads to have Plasmas or Flamers depending on your meta. If your group is insane enough to allow Forge World, then three Mortis-Pattern Dreadnoughts with either Twin-Linked Lascannons or Twin-Linked Autocannons cover your ass from Flyers.
• Call it evolution tradition
• Note: this tactic is severely outdated and gets buttfucked by most modern competitive lists such as Tau and Eldar (although the significant amounts of 4+ Invulnerable can annoy Tau a great deal). However, it can severely put a hole in lists that cannot handle a large number of hulls with Invulnerable Saves or that rely on immobile infantry in large numbers (Imperial Guard, Tyranids, and Orks tend to find the Standard of Devastation very problematic).

Indestructible Landraider

• Techmarine with servo-harness, power field generator, and 4 servo arm servitors and/or a Command squad with the Standard of Devastation (recommended with a crusader).

• Load above units into Deathwing Landraider of your choice.
• Enjoy av14, 4++, rerolls on the vehicle damage table, repair of hull points, immobilization and weapon destroyed, and 24 (don't you mean 12? Not so great now huh. No, 2 hurricane bolters is the equivalent of 6 twin-linked bolters, times the salvo 4 gives 24 re-rollable shots) BS4 rerollable bolter shots. 560pts
• WORD OF WARNING: GW errata sez the power field generator stops protecting the Raider of the Techmarine embarks on said Raider. Just slap the Techmarine on a bike and you should be good to go!
  • Wait, how do the Servitors work if you do that?
    • You can take servitors to follow the techmarine but if he has to move 12" to follow the land raider they will be left behind and he only repairs with a 50% chance.
      • New Errata has taken out the entry nerfing the Power Field Generator! The Invincible BAWKS is back, PRAISE THE EMPRAH!